Currently writing from London, this is the last blog post from across the Atlantic and my last semester abroad blog post ever! Next weekend I will be HOME at last!!! It's weird to think that I have spent more time abroad in 2017 than I have spent at home. The best metaphor I have heard to describe this feeling is that it feels like I've been dreaming for months and I'm just about to wake up.
Although traveling is an incredible experience, I am ready to head home to my friends and family. I used to think that feeling homesick was shameful. Why should I be longing for home when I'm in such an incredible place? But I have learned that to be homesick just means that you have come from a happy home and that is something to celebrate. There is a quote from Josh Gates that comes to mind when I think about coming home: "Travel does not exist without home... If we never return to the place we started, we would just be wandering, lost. Home is a reflecting surface. A place to measure our growth and enrich us after being infused with the outside world." I cannot express how excited I am to come home, my final adventure of this semester. After wandering around Spain and parts of Europe, it is time to come back and settle in. Home has taken on a whole new meaning to me after my time here. It's more than just my house in Columbus. Home is where I am surrounded by people who love and support me. Home is not a place, it's a feeling. A feeling of safety, of love, and of welcomeness. A place where I feel unquestioned and comfortable. Home is where my story began and I'm ready close out this chapter and to bring it full circle. I want to thank all of you who have followed my journey these past few months on my blog. It was nice to know that I wasn't just writing for myself, but that I had others who were interested in my travels and were excited to read what I had to write next. Thank you for helping me find my voice. I hope that you too travel somewhere someday and keep a written record of it so I can follow your adventures.
¡Adiós y hasta luego!
My lovely Columbus home. I'll be there soon.